Missing U
by William Easley
Summary: When you're away from the ones you love, at least you can keep in touch through the marvels of modern technology. A snapshot of how the Mystery Twins adjust to being home again in September, 2014.


**Missing U**

 **(September 2014)**

* * *

 _In Piedmont, California, school began on Tuesday, September 2. Gravity Falls High School began classes the next day, Wednesday. And from then on, texts and emails constantly flew from Oregon to California and back again. Some samples from the first month of school:_

* * *

 _Email, to: Wendy Corduroy, 09/02/2014 16:30_

Hi, Wendy! Mabel and I are back in school. This year we have home room together, along with English, biology, world history, and psychology. We have separate math classes, because last spring I took the challenge tests and exempted trig and pre-calculus! So I have Calculus 1, which looks super easy, and Mabel has trig, which she says reminds her of Bill C. A triangle's a triangle, though. I also have Computing I, while Mabel has art class.

Coach Dinson reminded me that the athletic banquet is on Friday night, and I have to be there. I think I'm going to get some kind of award or some deal. And we start our track training next week, though the season doesn't begin until Feb. It's going to be OK, because you kept me in great running shape! Thank you, Coach!

So . . . I'm so lonely for you. The only way I'll get through until I see you again is to keep crazy busy! But I will email or text every single day, I promise.

Hope you'll be happy in school this year. Hope you're remembering the summer fondly. Hope you think of me now and then.

OK, I'm a little concerned for Mabel. She's very subdued. I think the whole deal about Russ came back and hit her hard when she saw that fox on our birthday. If you get a chance, drop her a line and see if she'll say anythingg to you. She's not talking about it to me or Mom and Dad.

OK, OK, I buried the lede! Guess what? THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS WE CAN COME BACK TO GRAVITY FALLS FOR MORE THAN A WEEK! So that's not too bad. I will count every day until I see my awesome girl again!

With lots and lots of you-know-what,

Dipper

* * *

 _Text, to: Mason Pines, 09/02/2014 18:15_

Sup, dude? Got your email. Sorry about Mabes, will text her. Yeah, man, I'm missing you already. Starting the last term of my junior year tomorrow. Will be a senior in Jan! Scary to think about. Oh, dude, DON'T call or text me from 6 to 9 PM on T/Th, OK? I'll tell you about it later. Yay for Christmas! So pumped! Can't wait, man. And double you-know-what right back at you!

Wendy

* * *

 _Email, to: Mabel Pines, 09/02/2014 18:22_

Hi, Mabes! Hey, what's up, girl? I heard from Dipper that you're, like, depressed. Give me a call and let's talk it out. I won't go to bed until about 11:00, so anytime before that is fine. If you get this too late tonight, call me tomorrow night or Thursday night, but if you call Thursday, do it AFTER 9:30. I'll explain why later.

I hope everything is OK with you. I know, I get down in the dumps when we have to split up for fall myself, but I'm thinking it's probably more than that with you. Am I right? Sometimes it helps to talk about it, and you know you can call me any time, except for Tuesdays and Thursdays 6 to 9:30—oh, what the heck.

DON'T TELL DIPPER, OK?

I'm a college girl now! I got into the community college joint-enrollment program for night classes. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I'll be taking two courses this term: Freshman English and College Algebra. I'm trying to stockpile some courses for later on, and I've checked, and since the college is accredited, the credits transfer right across the board. No matter where Dipper and I go, I can bring these credits in and skip at least a few classes. But please, please, don't tell him. I want it to be a surprise (plus I'm afrad it will be super-hard and I might have to drop out).

So . . . you work hard at that art, girl. I loved that story about how you created a memorial to your favorite teacher. I get a catch in my throat just remembering it. You are going to go far with that talent! I'm so proud of you.

Please do call me, tonight or whenever. Love you guys and I can't wait to see you again just after Christmas (Dip spilled it to me, if you want to bop him one). I'm thinking of you, Mabes. Hang in there.

 _-Wendy_

* * *

 _Text to: Wendy Corduroy, 09/02/2014 19:45_

Hi, Wendy. M mad at Dip rite now 4 telling u. Not d-pressed, but sad. Want 2 talk 2 u about love and junk. Confused now. Call u Fri nite about 9, OK? L try 2 get my thoughts 2gether by then. Miss you! We'll c-u at Xmas, and I'm mad at Dip twice cause he spoiled that already!

Luv,

Mabel

* * *

 _Email to: Mabel Pines, 09/02/2014 21:47_

Hi again! I started to call, but it's pretty late and I remembered your school started today, so I didn't want to wake you up. So how was the first day? You said you were excited about sculpture in your art class. I still don't understand how that works—you model something in clay, make a mold of that, and then somehow cast it in metal, right? Tell me about that. I like to learn about processes.

Please send me a picture of your first sculpture, too!

I am missing you so much, Mabel. We start school this week, too, beginning tomorrow, so—no more short-order cooking in the Shack Monday-Friday! But I told Soos I'll still work on weekends until the season ends in December. Got to keep busy, and I'm saving up for a car!

Don't forget my birthday is September 15. Not a hint for a present, what I want for a present is about an hour-long Skype with you, girl. I will be sixteen, Mabel! So much happens when you hit sixteen. It's scary, though.

Tell me that you're feeling better. I know how sad you seemed when you left Gravity Falls. But we'll see each other again at Christmas, and then I am so looking forward to next summer! Text or write to me when you have a chance. Like I say, I am so missing you.

Hugs and smooches from

"Teek"

* * *

Text to T.K. O'Grady, 09/03/2014 07:15

Hey, Teek, just got ur email from last night. Yeah, feeling a little better, I think. I will send fotos of my first "masterpiece" 2 u! Got to get ready for the old school bus! Will call 2nite. Thanks for being there for me. U mean a lot to me, and I really look 4ward 2 seeing u again. Lots of luv n smoochies, Mabel

* * *

 _Email to: Wendy Corduroy, 09/05/2014_

Hi, Wendy! I was going to email you last night after the banquet, but it was late, and I found out that Mabel was talking to you on the phone. Hope she didn't tell you this: I got a special award as Outstanding Male JV Track Team Member for last year—and Coach Dinson announced I am going to be Captain of the JV squad! That totally caught me by surprise.

It's not that big a deal. I just help with the training a little, keep records, orient the incoming freshmen, help with things like timing tryout sprints, and so on. But, hey, I get to carry a clipboard! And when things get dull, I can pretend to write something down!

Wendy, thanks so much for your long heart-to-heart with Mabel last night. She's feeling better today. I wish she could open up to me, but, you know—girl stuff, and I don't have the right perspective. And it's sad, but Mabel and Mom aren't on the same wavelength.

So how is school for you? I'm doing well. In English class, Mabel and I had to write the usual "what I did on summer vacation" essay (really it just lets the teacher check on how well we can put a sentence together, I think). I wrote about going camping with a friend, learning how to cook trout fresh out of the water, and sleeping under the stars. I didn't confess how beautiful the friend was or say I went hot-tubbing with her in a warm spring! Soul of discretion, that's me.

Mabel asked if she could write fiction, and the teacher didn't care, so she wrote about being attacked by a monster and a magical prince saved her life but lost his. We read each other's essays before we turned them in. I don't care what the Manotaurs might say about my lack of manliness, I teared up when I read what she wrote. I did correct a couple of subject and verb agreements, though!

Thank you so much for being a shoulder for her. I think she's going to get over this. She's chatting with Teek at least every other day. Hey, she told me that he told her about that excitement in the Shack last, what, Thursday? I can't believe Soos! I mean, he knows that even a baby pterosaur is plenty dangerous! It must have been scary having one bust loose from its cage in the Museum! I'm glad nobody was hurt and that you had the presence of mind to throw open the door and scare it out with the airhorn.

How big was the mother that came for it? I have a feeling this is a smaller species than the one we saw. That one wouldn't fit in the Shack!

Cool about Little Soos talking now! He's a smart little guy. I'm sort of mad, though, that he asks for Mabel but not for Dipper. But then I don't give him tummy raspberries.

Bye for now, Magic Girl. Oh, I want so bad to see you. OK to face-chat tomorrow afternoon? Let's both get somewhere private at four o'clock and I'll call you, OK? But I know that seeing you and hearing your voice will make me lonelier. Still, as Grunkle Stan would say—

Worth it!

W/L,

Dipper

* * *

 _Email to: Mabel Pines, 09/13/2017 12:15_

Hi, Mabes! On lunch break right now. Good to talk to you again last night. Hey, call me any time. I may not be an expert, but I feel you, girl! Dump your probs on me anytime you're feeling sad. Glad you're getting biz-zay with school. That will help.

OK, I am so freakin' mad right now! Thursday was just my third night of college classes, right—DON'T TELL DIPPER, remember! Anyways, for our second meeting on Thursday, we had to turn in a "diagnostic theme" for English 111, Academic Discourse. The teacher is Mr. Cathcay, a grad student, and he wanted to see me after class. He handed me my paper, with no grade or mark on it anywhere, and asked, "Who wrote this for you?"

Nobody, I told him.

So he asks, "Where did you plagiarize it from? The Internet?"

I wrote it myself, I told him.

So he says "Prove it!"

This was already past the end of class, nine o'clock. But I sat down at a computer and said, give me a prompt.

He told me to write a five-hundred-word organized essay that identified my academic goals for the year.

So I did. Took like forty minutes. Then I proofread it on the screen and printed it out and handed it to him. He sat at his desk and read it and said, "I was mistaken," and took my original essay and marked a big red A on it. No apology or anything! Then he says, "You don't belong in this class. I'll see about bumping you up to English 112." That is the intermediate-comp class. I said no, because I'll need skills to build on, and he acted like he was mad at me. He asked where I went to high school, and I told him. "Gravity Falls isn't known for producing English scholars," he tells me.

I said I guess I'm the exception, then. I read a lot.

So he let me stay in the class, but I think he's got a grudge going against me. Man, you can't win sometimes! Anyway, the other class, the Colelge Algebra one, is pretty cool. I like the teacher in that one, Dr. DuPre, who is a retired professor from the U. of Oregon at Eugene. She's a neat older woman with a sharp wit, and she's always willing to explain stuff.

So I'm gonna do OK my first term of college, I think. I betcha Dipper's told you our secret. We still have our telepathic mojo going when we touch. So . . . he sort of downloaded what he knows about math and English into my brain, and I gave him what I know about driving and fixing a car, outdoor survival, and sort of rough biology—so he can identify trees and animals and such. Is that cheating? I don't think so, 'cause it's like fast-track tutoring, but tell me what you think.

You asked me about Devlin, who you said Dipper mentioned to you. He's like a Platonic friend. No sparks there. But, well, you know how for about a week everybody in Gravity Falls thought that Dipper and I were going at it hot and heavy, so this is a way of defusing that. Lucky I live in GF! Because since you guys left we've had a plague of penguins that came out of nowhere and were real nuisances! Now everybody's talking about where they came from and where they went (Ford had something to do with making them disappear), and nobody seems interested in my so-called love life any longer.

Hang in there, Mabes. Remember that me, Dip, and Teek got your back. See, I get tired of writing grammatically correct sentences, so this is my way of rebelling! Good to hear that you like all your teachers. Stick with it, Mabes. It can get rough, and you'll always have bad days, but it gets better. Take it from an older woman.

Hugs,

Wendy

* * *

Email to Dipper and Mabel Pines, 09/13/2014 13:09

Hi, knuckleheads! This is your Gruncle Stan. Wait, is that Grunkle? I just asked Ford, and Brainiac don't know how to spell it either. Anyways, this might be the last note you get from us for a while. Poindexter and I are going to get on a plane this afternoon and fly to NYC. There we are going to spend one night and then next day get on another plane and fly to Valladolid, Spain. Ugh, I hate planes and I'm gonna be on them for hours. Anyhow, Ford is hot on the trail of something or other, and there is an old ancient library or something in Valladolid where he is going to look thru some manuscripts and maps and things from the era of the Conquistadors. See, I do know some long words! Anyways, after that we may be going to the Caribbean and Florida for a week or three. Don't know when we will get back to Gravity Falls, but it should be roughly a month or about that. I will take lots of pictures if I can figure out how to use the camera app on my dumb smart phone. OK, the thing is, don't worry about us. There is a little bit of danger, probably, but we're a good team. BUT just in case something does happen to us, look up Ned Fredricks in GF. He is a lawyer and he has our wills. Don't freak out! I don't expect anything bad will happen, but you never know, you know. Anyways, if our "quest" is successful, I will tell you all about it later. Be well, you two, and I hope you ain't as much a bother to your folks as you always are to Ford and me. We miss you a lot.

Gruncle or Grunkle Stan, whichever.

* * *

Texts between Mabel and Dipper Pines, 09/30/2014

 _Hey, Dip, r u able to text?_

I'm in calculus. Working on a problem.

 _Then teach will think it's a calculator_.

What is it?

 _Worried about Grunkles. Haven't heard in 2 wks_

Give them time. Remember when they went to the Arctic.

 _That email scared me, Dipper._

Yeah.

 _Dip? U got practice this aft?_

No. Just doing Tues/Thurs this term.

 _Go home with me. Don't want to go to an m-t house._

OK

 _Thnx_

Sibling phone hug.

 _LOL. Pat. Pat._

* * *

 _The End_


End file.
